Sanctuary
by Calapine
Summary: Rose helps the Doctor find all the answers he didn't want to know.
1. Good Morning, Miss Nightingale

**Sanctuary**

**Good Morning, Miss Nightingale**

"Doctor! Doctor, you in here?"

Rose wandered into the console room dressed in an incredibly elaborate dress. It had taken almost an hour to get into and another to follow the instructions for tying together the layers, bows and laces. The Doctor, however, had promised that the effort would be worth it, and by the time Rose had finished she knew that if this world that the Doctor was so keen for her to visit wasn't up to scratch then she was going to be really, really irritated.

"Doctor?" She stopped short at the inner door. The console room was empty. She caught sight of his tool box lying on the grill by the console and rolled her eyes. He's probably misplaced one of the shinier spanners and was off wandering the corridors.

And he'd probably be hours if he found something interesting. Even in his own ship, the Doctor was an explorer.

She took a step towards the tool box, deciding that since the Doctor wasn't about he wouldn't mind her having a poke around in there. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and he always seemed suspiciously protective of his toolbox, and the console in general especially when he was tinkering with it.

Rose caught sight of the hand first, his fingers slightly curled, his flesh pale. She hitched up her skirts and dashed to his side.

"Doctor! Doctor, can you hear me!"

She put her ear to his mouth, listening for his breath. Soft and shallow, but it was there. Her fingers found his pulse and for a moment she marvelled at the double heart beat before her mind turned to the question of what was wrong with him.

She shook his shoulders gently, but there was no response, and his breathing did seem very slow. That might be normal for his species, she considered, laying a hand on his forehead.

"This had better not be some stupid joke, Doctor," she muttered.

After a moment she realised that his skin was hot, far too hot, though there was no sign of sweat. She'd taken his hand often enough to know that this was the wrong temperature. So he was ill, though he had said nothing to her earlier. It must have come on very suddenly. She glanced around the console room, vaguely hoping for an obvious solution to present itself.

"Alright, Rose, nothing to worry about. Just a fever. Should be a first aid kit around here somewhere."

She gave the inner door a long look, willing the TARDIS to present her with a room beyond that would be of some use. The Doctor's ship seemed to have a strange sense of humour that delighted in confusing her by constantly rearranging the internal architecture. The Doctor said she was just being friendly; Rose suspected that the TARDIS was jealous.

"Okay, Doctor, now I know that you probably can't hear me, but I'm going to see if I can find something to help you. I'll be right back, I promise."

She paused at the door, once again willing the TARDIS to help her out. When she went through, the corridor ahead was the same as she remembered. "Could have been worse," she murmured.

She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of water and a couple of towels and took them back to the console room. A wet towel on his forehead was better than nothing.

Time passed, and there was no sign of the Doctor recovering. Rose began to feel afraid, wondering what she would do if he did not wake up. Certainly there was plenty of food and water on board the TARDIS but the idea of living out her life alone in this alien ship scarcely bore thinking about. Mentally, she shook herself. Thinking worse case scenario wasn't going to help anyone.

The Doctor seemed to be getting warmer, but Rose couldn't be sure. It could mean he was fighting some infection, could mean he was getting worse, and GCSE Biology wasn't helping her much more than that. Kneeling by him, holding his hand, and watching his chest slowly rise and fall occupied an hour, two hours, three. She didn't know, and didn't want to check her watch to find out. The fact that she wasn't panicking she took as a good sign.

"This is so silly," she told him finally. "I bet you just hit your head crawling out from under that bloody console. So just hurry up and wake up, cause I'm tired and bored and going to get pretty cranky soon." Naturally, there was no response. "Fine, you be like that." She gave a wicked grin. "I quite like you like this actually, no daft interruptions makes a nice change.

There was a distinct beep from the console. Rose scrambled to her feet and tried to guess which particular control had caused the welcome interruption. "Was that you?" she asked, talking to the central rotor, talking to the TARDIS. "You trying to tell me something?"

There was another beep from the console, and this time she spotted the control.

"I'm going to assume that's a yes."

Her hand moved to the control, hesitant, unsure. She glanced at the Doctor. "Well, I've seen you operate this thing more than once, and we both know how useless you can be, so it really can't be that difficult, can it?"

She flicked the switch and then clung to the console, fully expecting something dreadful to happen.

The ship was still, the time rotor was unmoving. Whatever she had done, it hadn't had any effect on their location. They were still parked in the Time Vortex which, as far as the Doctor had told her, seemed to be some sort of not really existing place that you used to get from one time to another very quickly.

She chewed her bottom lip and risked another switch, then another, and another. In the end she lost track of the buttons she had pressed, the dials she had moved, and none of it seemed to be having any effect. In frustration she thumped the console, but even that age-old technique made no difference to her situation.

"This isn't for me!" she shouted. "Look at him! He's ill. He needs help. There's nothing else I can do, and I don't know how to work this damn thing." She paused, taking a deep breath, as she realised that she may just have offended whatever intelligence the TARDIS possessed. "Please, please…look at him."

She half closed her eyes, letting them drift over the console, vaguely hoping for some sort of divine inspiration. Or something.

Her hand clasped a lever and mentally she crossed her fingers. Then something flashed white bright in front of her eyes. There was a crackle and a sharp bang and she instinctively flung her arms up to cover her face and lunged to the floor. She glanced out from behind her fingers to see that one panel on the console had exploded.

But the time rotor was moving; the TARDIS was moving.

"Yes!" She jumped to her feet and grinned. "Fantastic!"

So she wasn't entirely sure what she had done, but the ship was in flight and that was the important thing. Wherever they landed, it had to be better than floating around in some infinite void.

She quickly checked on the Doctor, but there was no discernible change in his condition, and then ran to her room to grab some pillows and blankets, and change into some more practical clothes. Sleeping on the console room floor wouldn't be comfy, but there was no way she was going to leave the Doctor for more than a few minutes when he was like this.

"Good night, Doctor," Rose said, snuggling under her duvet. The Doctor had been carefully tucked under two blankets and his head gently placed on a pillow. "And, please, no jokes about sleepover parties if you wake up," she added.

Rose slept badly, tossing and turning and waking for what seemed like hours. Every time her eyes opened they drifted first to the Doctor and then to the time rotor. Each time she would hope for it to be still, and each time she was disappointed.

Dreams were half-remembered and half-expected, filled with the Doctor's voice and scent. She clung onto them for as long as she could, not exactly afraid of waking, but she did not want to be alone. She moved closer to him during the night, until finally she found herself curled against him, as much for warmth as for wanting some tangible feeling of companionship.

Rose opened her eyes. Something had changed. The Doctor's breathing was still steady, and he was still too warm. Her eyes flew to the console. The rotor had stopped. The TARDIS had landed.

She gave the Doctor's hand a squeeze., before jumping to her feet. "Here's hoping."

The control for the doors was about the only one on the console that she was certain of. Rose flicked the switch and stepped outside.

For a few moments, she was blinded by the light. The ground under her feet was soft, fine sand and she could feel the heat of the sun on her shoulders. In the distance she could hear the sea, lapping at the shore.

But it was the figure standing it front of her that drew Rose's attention. A young, black woman, neatly dressed in a business suit and her hands clasped behind her back. She regarded Rose calmly.

Rose raised a hand to her forehead, shading her eyes from the sun. "Hi there," she said.

"You must be Rose Tyler," said the woman. "Welcome to Sanctuary."


	2. Time Out of Joint

**Sanctuary**

**Time Out of Joint **

"Who're you then? And how d'you know who I am?" demanded Rose, standing protectively by the TARDIS door.

"My name is Alison." Rose's look remained questioning. "I believe that the Doctor has been injured. He requires treatment or the coma may become permanent."

"Did you do this to him then?"

"He did it to himself," snapped Alison, but the flash of anger was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "Please, let us treat him."

Rose folded her arms.

"Be sensible, Rose, there is nothing you can do for him, after all."

"I can keep him safe."

"Can you revive him?" asked Alison. "I am alone and I am unarmed. Please, let us help him."

"Us?" asked Rose.

"Yes, I don't live on this planet all by myself." She stepped towards the TARDIS, but Rose still blocked her way. Alison sighed. "What else?"

"Who exactly are 'us'?"

"I promise I will answer all your questions, but the Doctor needs help. Have your travels really jaded you so much that you won't trust a simple offer of help when it most needed?"

There was a long silence, as Rose considered that the stranger was right, there really wasn't a lot she could do for the Doctor by herself. She tried not to think about the other bit too much.

"Alright," she said finally, stepping into the TARDIS. Alice followed her inside and Rose fully expected some comment about the size, but none was forthcoming. Stupid of her really, when this woman had been waiting for them. She must know what a TARDIS is.

"How long has he been like this?" asked Alison, kneeling by him.

"Less than a day," said Rose.

"We need to get him outside, the signal won't penetrate the TARDIS."

The obvious question was on the tip of her tongue, but Rose suppressed it, thinking that the Doctor would be a little less suspicious and a little more concerned about her welfare if she were the one in trouble. Probably.

As Alison took hold of the Doctor under his shoulders, Rose grabbed his ankles and together they managed to get him outside and onto the beach without too much trouble. Alison slipped a hand inside her pocket and retrieved a small metallic disk, and attached it to the Doctor's forehead before Rose could protest.

"One to transport," she said into a comms bracelet that Rose had mistaken for a watch. A moment later the Doctor vanished. When Alison caught Rose's look, she held her hands up in mock surrender.

"He'll be fine, I promise. That's just the quickest way to get him to the hospital. I thought you might enjoy the walk to the colony. This is a pleasant world and it'll give you a chance to ask me all those questions that I'm just dying to answer."

Rose managed a smile. "Yeah, alright."

"Besides," said Alison. "We don't get many visitors, it'll be nice to have someone different to talk to."

She turned away and began walking across the sand, inland. Rose could see no sign of civilisation, but the fine sand did gave way to much rockier beach running below a cliff face that seemed to extend along the coast for miles in both directions.

"I want to see the Doctor as soon as he wakes up," said Rose, jogging a few steps to catch up with Alison.

"I know, and you will, soon. But, please, you've been travelling with his for some time. Tell me, have you noticed anything odd happening?"

"What, you mean apart from the fact that he's a time-travelling alien with two hearts, the last of his kind and has an unfailing ability to attract trouble?"

Alison's eyes lit up, but she hid it quickly. "Last of his kind?"

Rose gave her best innocent smile, and remembered Van Statten. "Thought you knew all about us."

"I do know about the Time War, Rose," she said. They had reached the end of the sandy beach, and now there was a stretch of rocks ahead, before a short cliff face.

"Is this cross-country all the way?" asked Rose. Her trainers were sturdy enough to get her over the rocks, but she wasn't thrilled about the idea of walking for miles over rough ground, not when she wanted to see the Doctor as soon as possible.

"Don't worry, a pathway runs by this bit of the cliff. It leads straight to the colony," Alison told her as they clambered over the rocks.

Alison leapt over the final few rocks and quickly found the handholds she needed to start ascending the dozen or so metres of cliff. She moved surely and swiftly; clearly she'd made the climb before.

"Not afraid of heights are you?" she called over her shoulder.

Some sort of pride swelled inside Rose's chest. It'd been years since she'd climbed a tree, but she tried to convince herself that it was just like riding a bicycle. She stepped up to the rock determinedly and searched for the foothold that had been found so easily by Alison.

The climb wasn't as easy as it had looked. Rose scraped her knees more than once as she ascended, twisting her limbs to awkward angles so that they had a grip on the cliff. Halfway up, she caught sight of Alison's face peering down at her. "Come on, slowcoach!" she called, grinning down at her.

Rose gritted her teeth, but didn't reply. The last thing she wanted was to lose concentration and slip to a very ignominious death.

"Almost there," said Alison. She reached a hand down to help Rose up the last few feet and pulled her to safety.

Sitting on the grass and breathing heavily, Rose looked over the cliff. "Seems much higher from up here."

"This is one of my favourite spots," Alison told her as she gazed out to the sea.

Rose got to her feet and brushed down her jacket. "Alright then, which way to this colony of yours?"

"North, which is that away," Alison said, pointing in one direction which, as far as Rose could see, was as equally devoid of landmarks as the other. "About three miles and more or less downhill all the way. Then we'll reach the transport platform."

"And what's that when it's at home?"

"Actual colony's several hundred miles inland, but we've installed several transport stations across the continent - matter transmission, bit like what the TARDIS does but a lot less sophisticated."

They walked in silence for some minutes as Rose got her breath back, and it was Alison who was the first to break it.

"Did you really not notice anything strange when you were travelling with him? Never felt threatened? Afraid?"

"Of the Doctor?" asked Rose, guessing that she wasn't referring to the various human and aliens who'd tried to do something nasty to her.

"Yes," said Alison.

"Never," Rose told her. "And I thought I was the one meant to be asking questions."

"I'm sorry, please go ahead."

"Right. So how d'you know who I was, and the Doctor? And what happened to him, exactly?"

Alison regarded Rose for a long moment. "I will answer, but please listen to my whole answer. I am not your enemy."

"Yeah, whatever. Just tell me."

Alison shrugged. "We've been watching you for some time. Both of you. When it became clear that the Doctor had no intention of altering his ways, we had to act."

Rose's voice cooled. "So you did that to him. Made him ill."

"Yes, Rose. Please listen: you've seen the dangers of time-travel now; you've seen how dangerous, how very fragile the time-line can be."

"My dad," she said quietly.

"But the Doctor, as you may have noticed, pays no attention to such things," said Alison. She paused for a moment. "It isn't his fault. He just…forgets that things aren't the same anymore."

"He says he knows what he's doing," said Rose, annoyed at herself for such a half-hearted defence of her friend.

Alison shook her head. "He knows how things used to be, when it was possible to wander the time-streams with very few restrictions. But we live in a universe without the protection of the Time Lords now. A universe where even the smallest change can be catastrophic. He's hundreds of years old, Rose, and very set in his ways. He's no fool, but he may not realise what he's done, especially after…everything that he's lost."

"So you've brought him here cause he's causing this damage?"

"That's right. But he won't be harmed, neither of you will. We aren't hostile, just concerned. Think of the web of time as the environment, and we're the Green Party, except we got into power."

Rose smiled. "You're from Earth," she said with a little more certainty than she felt.

"Accent give it away?" Alison asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Come on, have you heard the Doctor?"

"No, actually. But, yeah, long time ago I lived on Earth. I used to tend bar."

"I used to work in a shop."

They caught each other's eyes then, and Rose thought she saw a little bit of herself reflected back. For a few moments, there was a companionable silence.

"I know it looks pretty bad," said Alison. "I've been experimented on by aliens before, but it really was the only way to get the Doctor's attention. He doesn't exactly have a healthy respect for authority."

"Tell me about it," said Rose, with a roll of her eyes. "So who's this 'we' you keep mentioning?"

"Ah, well, it wasn't me that gave the Doctor his…condition. Don't have the medical expertise, but I'm pretty good with people, and there are rather a lot of people to deal with in Sanctuary."

"So who's in charge?"

"The guy that wants to speak to the Doctor," Alison told her. "Look, there's the platform." She gave Rose a sidelong glance. "Race you?"

"You're on," said Rose. She broke into a sprint, ignoring the path and cutting across the long grass, swiftly followed by Alison.

The platform was less then a hundred metres away, but they were both out of breath by the time they got there.

"Who won?" asked Rose.

"Dunno. Want to go again?"

"No way. I want a seat and a nice cool drink."

"I think I can manage that," Alison said. "Right, just stand in the circle and we'll be off."

The platform looked like a slab of stone. It was embedded in the ground and had a thin pillar attached to one side. Rose stepped on and watched as Alison hit a button on top of the pillar, and then a whole series of buttons in a furtive enough way to make Rose suspect it was a password.

"All set?" asked Alison.

"Whenever you are," said Rose, but they were no longer standing in rolling grasslands.

They had materialised on an identical stone platform in the middle of a busy marketplace, bustling with people, none of whom batted an eye at their sudden appearance. Alison jumped down onto the gravel.

"Don't worry," she said. "Just market day."

Rose climbed down and looked around. The stalls were simple wooden constructs roofed by brightly-coloured fabrics, and there were dozens and dozens of them filling the quadrangle. She caught the cry of sellers advertising their wares above the general rumble of conversation. Most of the people here were not as well-dressed as Alison. She could see the clothes they wore were far simpler: tunics and trousers for the most part, broken by the occasional white-coat and one or two people dressed in the same manner as Alison.

For some reason Rose was most surprised by the children. A half dozen or so playing in a patch of dirt with a ball, others clinging to parents, babies crying, older ones wandering alone amongst the stalls.

She didn't realise she was staring.

"You not seen humans for a while or what?" asked Alison.

Rose shook her head. "It's not that." She paused. "I just wasn't expecting something like this, I guess. Seems a bit normal. For intergalactic almost-assassins, I mean."

"We've got the painfully sterile white corridors and high-tech equipment too. At the hospital, for one, which is also where your Doctor is."

"Course. Well, lead on."

* * *

The further they moved from the marketplace, the quieter the streets grew. Cobbled stones, low buildings and the occasional horse and carriage reminded Rose of Dickensian London.

The hospital didn't seem at all out of place until they went inside. Rose felt like she had stepped from the nineteenth century and into the twenty-first. She cast a questioning look at Alison.

"It's a bit of a conceit," she said. "The labs are all modern constructs, we just stuck up an imaging field so they fitted in with everything else."

White coats were everywhere in here, but Rose really wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around her. She was eager to see the Doctor.

"Right down here," said Alison, taking the first left. "We put him right next to the entrance, since he's only in for a few hours."

She pushed open the first door in the corridor and Rose rushed into the room. By the far wall, the Doctor lay propped up on a bed, his eyes closed. She hovered by the door, glancing expectantly at Alison.

"It was just a matter of administering the antidote. He's fine, just asleep."

Rose rushed to the Doctor's side, wrapping him in a hug.

"Oi! Get off!" said his sleepy voice, slightly muffled by her hair. "You've just interrupted a very nice dream about ice cream and fishes."

"I was really worried about you!" She punched him lightly in the arm. "Don't ever scare me like that again." The Doctor grinned and returned her hug. Rose savoured the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, and turned her head to hear the hearts beating in his chest. She smiled.

Alison coughed politely, and they turned to look at her.

"So you're the trumped up little human who thinks that I'm damaging time then? Alison, isn't it?" asked the Doctor, jumping out of bed. "What've you done with my coat?"

"How d'you know about the time thing?" asked Rose.

"Very long, very boring lecture from one of these suits when I woke up. Would've walked out but some bright spark paralysed my legs."

"That was for your own safety, Doctor," said Alison. "The antidote needed time to take full effect."

"Yeah, and you didn't want me strangling that pompous idiot."

Alison ignored him. "And besides," she said, "you seem to be under a misapprehension. I'm afraid that my knowledge of temporal mechanics is pretty limited. If you'll follow me to the audience chamber, you can air your grievances."

"And who's in this audience chamber?" asked the Doctor, not moving.

"The guy in charge of this place," Rose told him.

"The guy in charge of this place?" mimicked the Doctor. "And who might he be. Alison?"

"Please," she said. "If you'll come with me."

"Actually, I'd much rather just get my TARDIS back and leave, if it's all the same to you. I don't much like being the victim of a bio weapon and having my TARDIS hijacked."

"Hijacked!" exclaimed Rose. "I was the one who got us here."

The Doctor looked at her and blinked. "What did you do then?"

"I, um, well, I improvised," said Rose. "It was an emergency."

"You started randomly pressing button on my console!" he accused.

"I didn't have a lot of choice, Doctor. Not when I didn't know if you were ever going to wake up again."

"Please," said Alison, raising a hand. "The Doctor's right. Your TARDIS was, ah, redirected. Whatever you did to the console would not have interfered with that."

"You're lucky you didn't blow us both up," muttered the Doctor to Rose. She thought of the exploding panel on the console and decided not to mention that. "I think a quick course on emergency TARDIS protocols might be in order," he told her.

Alison coughed politely.

"You still here?" asked the Doctor

The smile that she had been half-concealing vanished. "I won't be here for as long as you are, if you do not co-operate."

"See that, Rose. A dictatorial heart lies under every polite surface."

Rose tried very hard to remember that the Doctor had a lot more experience of the universe that she did and wasn't too happy about being poisoned or having his home nicked. "Look, I don't see the harm," she said. "They went to a lot of trouble to get you here, they must have a good reason that doesn't involve some really inventive form of death."

"You'd be surprised," he said.

Rose rolled her eyes, which did not go unnoticed by the Doctor. He sighed. "Yeah, alright, we'll see what your new friend wants. But I reserve the right to say 'I told you so,' at any and all appropriate junctures."

"I'll get you your coat," said Alison.

* * *

The imposing building that housed the audience chamber was located behind a high wall at the end of a very long, very grandiose and very, very quiet street.

They passed through the security checkpoints with little trouble. A few words from Alison was more than enough to satisfy the guards.

"This is the centre of government, I suppose," Alison explained when Rose asked about the security. "Our parliament, you could say."

"Not exactly a democracy then?" asked the Doctor.

Alison led them through the big, airy reception hall of the parliament building and into the elevator at the far end. "Penthouse audience chamber," she said curtly. As they began to move up Rose slid her hand into the Doctor's. She wasn't worried but she knew that he was, and this had become her shorthand for reminding him that she was right beside him, wherever he went.

The elevator doors slid open again after a few moments to reveal a long dully lit room dominated by a long conference table. The trio stepped out.

The lighting gradually increased as the elevator doors slid shut with an ominous click. Bit dramatic, thought Rose, and when the Doctor's hand tightened around hers, she knew something was wrong.

The Doctor's eyes were fixed on the far end of the table. The man sitting there seemed to be regarding the Doctor with an equally intense stare.

"Doctor," he said. "I'm so glad you finally made it."

The Doctor's eyes widened slightly, and Rose tightened her grip on his hand.

"Doctor, who is it?" she asked.

"But you're dead." She barely heard him, and she was certain that he hadn't heard her. "You're all dead."

The man's arms spread in a magnanimous gesture. "Obviously not."

"Doctor, who is he?" insisted Rose.

"Another Time Lord," the Doctor replied finally. "He likes to call himself the Master."


	3. The Man in the Castle

**Sanctuary**

**The Man in the Castle **

"Alison get some tea, would you? It would appear that the Doctor is in need of a cup."

She nodded and quickly left the room via a side door. The Doctor still hadn't moved.

"Won't you sit down?" said the Master. "There is, I believe, a lot to talk about."

Rose looked up at the Doctor, his face like stone, his eyes burning intensely. It was a mask, and it frightened her just a little because she wasn't sure what he was hiding beneath it.

She tugged on his hand. "Come on, Doctor, come and sit down," she said, as though coaxing a frightened child. He seemed paralysed, and she decided that it wasn't really fear, or anger, but a sort of disbelief as he tried to accept something that he had thought impossible. Her initial tugging on his hand seemed to have no effect. "Doctor, please, sit down," she repeated, squeezing his hand a little tighter.

Finally he moved, his eyes travelling from the Master to her. She gave him the smallest smile, but it was enough and he let her guide him into a seat, before she took the one next to him.

She swallowed, letting the silence stretch on for a few moments. It was almost eerie, watching the two Time Lords stare so intently at one another. There was no-one else in the room, no-one else in the universe. She wished Alison would hurry up and get back with the tea.

"So he's the Doctor, you're the Master. What's with that?" she asked, shattering the silence with the first question she could think of.

The Master's eyes flicked to meet hers, and she felt a sudden rush of fear under the intense gaze, but she didn't flinch, didn't look away.

"Different degrees, Miss Tyler," he said. "We were at school together, isn't that so, Doctor?"

"Long time ago," he ground out.

The Master gave a long-suffering sigh and rolled his eyes heavenwards. "I did save your life."

"After poisoning me in the first place."

The Master smiled. "Indeed, but that is not what I'm referring to. I shall show you when…ah, the tea."

The panelled door had slid back noiselessly, and Alison had reappeared, carrying a very full tray replete with tea, milk, sugar and cups. Rose made a move to help her, but Alison met her eyes and gave the smallest shake of her head.

She settled the tray on a low cabinet by the door and swiftly set out the tea things on the conference table. Rose ran her fingers over the cup she had been given, decorated with a seaside motif, it reminded her of the view from the cliff top. Alison poured Rose's tea first, and seeing no reason not to, Rose helped herself to milk and two generous teaspoonfuls of sugar.

"Thank you, Alison. Please join us," said the Master, when she had finished pouring.

She nodded and took a seat on the opposite side of the table to Rose, and poured a cup of tea for herself.

Rose noticed that the Doctor had added just a little milk to his own tea. He stirred it methodically before taking a long, deliberate sip.

"Ah, so you do trust me," the Master said.

"Not to kill me before you've had an opportunity to gloat? Sure, I trust you," said the Doctor.

"Kill you!" spluttered Rose, midway through a sip. She coughed as she swallowed the hot liquid the wrong way.

"Well, yes, occasionally, in the past, the Doctor has proved to be a bit of a problem. In fairness, however, I only actually succeeded in killing him once, and I am certainly not going to try again today. In fact, Doctor, I find myself in need of your help."

"Hang on a minute. You killed him? Killed him? As in dead?" said Rose.

"That's right," confirmed the Master.

"He looks pretty good for a corpse," she said..

The Master frowned slightly and looked at the Doctor. "Doesn't she know?"

"Know what?" asked Rose. "Know what, Doctor?"

"Not now," said the Doctor. "It's not important. What you should be paying attention to is the fact that he's trying very unskilfully to attack your trust in me. See, that's how he works."

"How very obtusely put, Doctor," said the Master.

"Yeah, well, I'm not really in the mood to play, thanks."

Rose turned to the Master. "This some sort of game to you then? You like scoring points off each other or something."

"Not today, Miss Tyler. Alison, if you please."

Alison put down her teacup, and stood up to slide back part of the wall panelling, revealing a monitor embedded in the wall. She touched a control and for a moment the screen flickered, before it resolved into a rotating graph. Rose screwed up her eyes as she tried to make out what it said, and then gave up. As far as she was concerned, graphs were only supposed to have an X-axis, a Y-axis and one or two lines. She tried to pretend she hadn't noticed the mathematics sliding along the bottom of the screen which has far too many Greek letters and far too few numbers for her to believe that it was actually meaningful.

But it meant something to the Doctor. He couldn't quite disguise the fascinated expression on his face, though he was trying. She could see how hard he was trying, and she wasn't the only one who had noticed. The Master now looked decidedly satisfied. Rose guessed that was a point to him.

The Doctor stretched his arms, sat back in his chair and managed to look completely nonplussed. "Alright, so you're a genius. Well done. What's the convoluted psychotic little twist you've got planned? After all, wouldn't want to waste all of that genius on a nice straightforward idea, would you?"

"Survival is a simple enough idea," said the Master.

"And how much blood have you split this time to keep your rotting carcass clinging onto life? How many people have you murdered just to give yourself a few extra years?" asked the Doctor, his voice harsh, cutting, and his face twisted into a sneer.

He was startled when it was Alison who replied. "None," she said.

"Doctor, what does the graph thing mean?" asked Rose

The Doctor glanced sharply at the Master before he spoke. "We're on Earth," he said. "In the early Devonian period."

There was the smallest cough from the Master.

"Fine, mostly early Devonian period. There's a few pockets of later epochs transplanted onto the crust of the planet. And we're also on Earth after it was destroyed."

"I don't understand," admitted Rose, trying to ignore the sudden memory that forced itself upon her: great chunks of her world burning in space, and nothing left but a dying sun.

"This is Earth, as it was millions of years ago occupying the present time, some fifteen minutes after you saw the Earth destroyed, and space a few seconds ahead of relative time."

Rose frowned. "So we're here now. On an Earth that's like it was then."

"Yeah. Sort of."

"What about the Sun then? It expanded, didn't it?"

The Doctor glanced at the Master, almost as though he were looking for guidance, before standing up to get a closer look at the screen. "That's the clever bit: there's a localised time-bubble so we're pocketed in the far future looking out at the past, to when the sun was intact. And we're being kept out of danger by the jump ahead of relative time." The Doctor turned on his heel to look at the Master. "For security, I assume."

"Quite correct."

"But from what?" asked the Doctor.

The Master clapped his hands together once and stood up. "That's enough for this afternoon, I think. I have a great deal of work to do and I'm sure that both you and Miss Tyler require rest and refreshment. Alison, something in the east wing with a view would be ideal."

"Hang on a minute," protested the Doctor. "You go to all the trouble of getting me here…"

"…and now that you see you are in no danger, I'm sure you will be delighted to accept all the hospitality that Sanctuary can offer. If you'll excuse me." Before the Doctor could object again, the Master touched a control on his own comms bracelet and transported out of the room.

"Very flash," muttered Rose.

"Complete waste of power," said Alison.

"Well, that's what vanity'll cost you." The Doctor stuck his hands into his jacket pockets and looked at Alison. "I suppose you'd better get on with your chores then and tidy us away into a neat little corner of your colony."

* * *

Alison left them alone in a light and airy day room that had a spectacular view of the thick rainforests that the grassland gave way to. Dividing doors at either end of the long room lead to separate bedrooms. Occasional tables littered the room, a teapot on one, a bowl of fruit on the one by the couch.

The Doctor lay sprawled across the couch, fingers laced together behind his head, while Rose gazed out the window.

"I should have known," murmured the Doctor, letting his mask slip. "Why didn't I know?"

Rose turned to look at him. He was staring at the ceiling, eyes wide. She knew what it was like to see her world destroyed, because he had taken her there. She knew what it was like to be the last of her kind, because he had taken her to a place where the humans were alien to her.

But she had always known that she could go back, always known that her Mum was waiting at home with a cup of tea and a warm hug. There was a bit of the universe she could point to and say that's me, that's where I'm from. When infinity was opened up to her, the knowledge that she had her own little corner was always a comfort. The TARDIS might have become a second home to her, but she was still a working-class girl from London, and a very small, very secret part of her knew that she wasn't going to be travelling forever.

Her thoughts turned to her father, her dad, and how she had felt when she had the chance to talk to him. When he should have been dead, but against reason and logic and sense she had had the chance to talk to him, to let him know who she was.

But no feeling that she could sum up could ever quite fit that strange lost expression on the Doctor's face. He was a child, and all Rose wanted to do was protect him.

She crouched down by the sofa, so that her face was almost level with his.

"How could you have known?" she said softly. "Whole universe, all of time and space. But you know now."

His eyes turned to hers, and this close she could see how very blue they were. And how very old. It scared her a little, looking into them. Like if she stared long enough she'd forget everything else.

"Doesn't matter. I should still have realised. Up here." He tapped his forehead.

"Like telepathy, you mean?"

"Yeah, in a way. Nothing fancy. Just knowing that you're not alone in the universe; knowing that there's others out there like you. Gives you a sort of intuition. Means we can recognise each other, predict each other. Mean we never die alone."

"You're not alone, Doctor. I'm here. I'll always be here." His hand reached out to hers and clasped it gently.

"But why him?" he asked. "Out all of them, why him?" His voice was stronger now, laced with an anger Rose recognised.

"He doesn't seem to want to kill you now, whatever it was that happened before. It seems alright here, actually," she said.

"That's only because I'm useful in some way," said the Doctor. "But what's his plan? What's he doing here?" A wry grin suddenly appeared on his face. "Look at me, falling into old patterns." He glanced at her. "Feels good, Rose. Feels normal, the old sort of normal."

"So what's the story then?"

"Old friends falling out, bit of a incompatibility in points of view."

"What d'you mean?"

"He likes killing things and being in charge of stuff. I like to stop him."

"So it is a game then?" She couldn't stop herself from sounding just a little bit angry.

The Doctor sat up and leaned forward. "The sort of game where people die, yes. The sort of game where everyone's grown-up and has to make very difficult, very serious and very nasty decisions, yes. The sort of game where you break the rules to win because there's too much at stake, yes. I used to be very good at games." He flopped down in the sofa. "Course now I'd be quite happy with a nice game of Twister."

"Twister?" Rose, reluctantly smiling.

"Yeah, it's got this wheel thing and a big mat with lots of coloured spots."

"I know what Twister is, Doctor." She sighed and sat down properly on the wooden floor and crossed her legs. "Anyway, he doesn't seem to be doing very much. And what's with the nicking an old Earth and sticking it down here?"

"Security. I told you."

"And they can both exist at the same time - the one back there and the one now I mean."

"Obviously. We're here aren't we? Very safe places exploded suns. Pockets of time, also very safe, especially now. Put the two together and you get yourself a very cosy little base."

"There's a lot of normal people here too, y'know."

The Doctor sat up suddenly. "Really?"

"Sure, there's a whole town out there," Rose told him. "Market day today," she added.

The Doctor shook his head. "They can't be indigenous. What are they doing here?"

"Maybe your friend want to conduct some mad scientist type experiments on them?"

"Don't put it past him," warned the Doctor. "Don't put anything past him." He leaned over to the table to pluck a grape from the fruit bowl, examining it for a moment before tossing it in the air and catching it in his mouth.

"Very impressive," said Rose.

"Anyway," said the Doctor, swallowing the grape. "You're hardly one to talk, getting chummy with his number one minion."

Rose shrugged. "She wasn't quite like that before. It's like she's keeping up her guard when you high and mighty Time Lords are around."

"What? And only you, Rose Tyler, can see the true face of our hopelessly misunderstood adversary?"

"Hey, nobody has actually tried to kill us yet."

"Speak for yourself," muttered the Doctor.

"Well, apart from that. It's all been very polite and civilised."

"And you'd like it to stay polite and civilised?" asked the Doctor.

"Yeah, so don't jinx it!"

The Doctor jumped to his feet and offered Rose his arm. She took it, and he led her towards the main doors, talking as they walked. "We're not getting any answers sitting about here, so I propose that you go talk to your lovely new friend, and I shall do a spot of careful investigating."

He opened the doors and ushered Rose through. Without a word, they agreed to head in separate directions. As the Doctor turned away, Rose grabbed his arm. "Don't do anything stupid," she said.

The Doctor grinned. "Do I ever?"


	4. Now Think of Tomorrow

**Sanctuary**

**Now Think of Tomorrow **

As it turned out, Alison was surprisingly easy to locate. Rose went for the straightforward approach and asked the first person that she met where she might find her. The officious little man, carefully dressed in a pinstripe suit and carrying a bowler hat was only too eager to help after she mentioned that she was with the Doctor. It seemed that he had quite a reputation.

He directed her to a stairwell at the end of a bleak, out of the way little corridor. The unadorned walls and stone floor were in stark contrast to what she had seen of the rest of the Parliament building. Rose padded carefully along the corridor, looking over her shoulder as she walked. She wasn't being followed, but she felt like she was being watched.

The stairs looked unsturdy at best. She took hold of the banister and gave it a firm shake. The metallic ring echoed in the corridor. She had a final look over her shoulder and began to walk down the stairs.

They were longer than she had imagined, and seemed to grow darker the further down she went. Soon patches of her journey were in virtual darkness as the wall lights became further and further spaced out. The lack of illumination made her nervous and she was beginning to wonder if this was such a good idea. She had, after all, no idea where the stairs ended.

She kept walking, even if she turned back now it would be a long journey back up. The stairs had to end sometime, but when she found herself in complete darkness for more than a few minutes, Rose swallowed, almost convinced that the helpful little man had sent her here as a way to keep her out of the way. But then she caught a patch of greyness below. She raced dangerously fast round the stairs and finally found solid ground and another corridor.

Dimly lit, but the walls here were a gleaming white. She ran her hand over the surface and was surprised to find that it felt like plastic. She walked on.

After a few short metres, her way was blocked by a heavy double door, locked shut and with a palm-print scanner to gain access. Rose pressed her hand against the scanner only to have it give an annoyed beep. The doors remained shut.

She tried the old-fashioned approach, and knocked. "Hello?" she said. "I'm looking for Alison."

To her surprise, a few moments later the door slid open. Alison stood behind it, one hand on her hip and a wry expression on her face. "You're not really supposed to be down here," she said in a stage whisper.

"Says who?" asked Rose.

Alison grinned and step aside. "Well, come in then."

It was a strange round room, with almost luminescent white walls curving into an elliptical roof. Alison moved to the main workstation, located in the centre of the room. The doors slid closed behind her, and it somehow seemed so much quieter.

"Peaceful, isn't it?" said Alison, as though catching her thought.

Rose nodded, her attention caught by the nearest window, though the glass was too misty for her to see through. It was perhaps two metres tall and there were more set into the wall at even intervals around the room. She wondered what they were hiding.

"Is this where you work?" asked Rose.

"Not exactly," Alison told her. "I come here to think, to reflect, I suppose."

"It's something to do with this room then, this feeling? I feel a bit weird, kind of serene."

"We're cut off from the rest of the universe," said Alison. "This is…was a part of the Master's TARDIS. He didn't have much use for it."

"I didn't mean to disturb you," said Rose, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

"You're not. Really. In fact, I'm glad you're here. In Sanctuary, I mean." She smiled. "You remind me of home. You're from the twentieth century, aren't you ?"

"Just barely," Rose told her. "So how did you get here then?"

"Same way as you, I'd guess. Maybe a little more complicated."

"The Doctor wants to know what the big plan is."

Alison raised her eyebrows. "You don't muck about do you?"

"Hey, you don't seem the type to start shooting at me."

"That happen a lot?"

"Only one or twice a week. If I'm lucky." She planted her elbows on the workstation and rested her head on her hands. "Come on then, what are you doing here?"

"You really want to know?" asked Alison.

"I'm all for saving the world."

Alison slid into the seat on the other side of the console and leaned forward, as though afraid she would be overheard. "That's what we're trying to do here. Those people that you saw, they're not like us. You and me, I mean. They don't have any homes to go back to. They're the unlucky ones. They're the ones who survived."

"The Time War? They like the Doctor then?" asked Rose.

"Time Lords? No. No, you'd be surprised how many species in the universe resemble humans…or Gallifreyans. Thank you, Rassilon." She smiled suddenly, falsely, but Rose didn't recognise the name.

"The Doctor says the Master's…" began Rose.

"…evil? Not to be trusted? Going to kill him?" asked Alison. Rose nodded. "I wouldn't blame him. And he's right, I suppose," she sighed, and caught Rose's startled look. "Don't worry. Things have changed quite significantly since they last…since your Doctor last met him. And one thing I've noticed is that however much they hate each other, they're not afraid to put their differences aside when the situation calls for it."

Rose blinked, realisation setting in. "You know the Doctor?"

"In a way," said Alison. "I'm not supposed to…" She broke off, looking away.

"Alison?" Rose asked softly. She reached across the console and took the other woman's hand. "Alison, what's wrong?"

Alison shook her head, and Rose could see her biting her lip. She tried to think of the right thing to say. "Alison, whatever it is, I want to help you, okay?"

She smiled another false smile, and touched a control on the console.

One of the windows on the far side of the room cleared to reveal a person, a man, inside with greying hair and gaunt features. His eyes were closed, his skin a sickly pale colour.

* * *

The guard gave him a final rough push and the Doctor stumbled into the room ahead. "D'you mind?" he snapped over his shoulder at the closing door. He readjusted his leather jacket and looked around: another day room, but, unlike the one that had been given to Rose and him, this one had a claustrophobically low ceiling and was all deep burgundy and dark wooden panelling.

Over on the far side of the room was another door, open and leading out onto a balcony. The Doctor could see the Master there, hands neatly clasped behind his back as he admired the view.

Well, this was were he wanted to be anyway, decided the Doctor and joined the Master outside. The sunlight was harsh, but the view was lovely and the geography of the colony spread out in front of him like a patchwork quilt: it was a strange mixture of the primitive and the technological. He waited for the Master to speak.

"Why didn't you just ask?" he said finally, turning to face the Doctor and leaning back against the balcony wall.

"You'd really just tell me?"

The Master smiled. "Of course."

"You seemed quite keen to leave earlier," said the Doctor.

"There was something I had to attend to."

"I didn't notice."

"Servo-receiver," he said, tapping his ear.

"What's it saying now then?" asked the Doctor. "It tell you what we were saying in our rooms then?" There was no reply. "Didn't think to just transmat down and tell us what we wanted to know?"

"And deprive you of the pleasure of your paranoia? Besides, I felt a small experiment was in order. You are, Doctor, as predictable as ever."

"So sorry to disappoint," said the Doctor, folding his arms.

The Master shook his head. "No, not at all. On the contrary, I am very much relieved."

The Doctor gave him an incredulous look, still he couldn't help but notice how tired he seemed. It was disconcerting, to see something approaching vulnerability in those eyes. In his memories they had been familiar, at first, then grown cold and distant before they finally, and once he had thought terminally, changed to an animal's, fiery with anger and madness. He almost closed his eyes at the memory, the horror of it rolling over his senses as he felt the sun on his back and the dirt under his nails and the rich, raw anger that had almost made him kill this man.

"So how come you're not dead?" he asked bluntly.

"Now I think it is you who are disappointed."

"I want to know how you survived," said the Doctor with a touch of aggression, and taking a step forward.

The Master was unimpressed. "If you are trying to intimidate me, I assure you that even after all you have done, I am quite capable of killing you, before you kill me." A smile, and a flash of teeth reminded the Doctor how dangerous he was. He noticed the Master's subtle change in stance as if he were preparing for violence, and stepped away from him, leaning casually on the balcony wall.

"I did what I had to do."

"You destroyed our race," said the Master quietly. "You committed genocide, Doctor!" The anger was there, but tightly controlled. The Doctor, on the other hand, had no compunctions about keeping his temper.

"I had no choice!" he shouted.

"No choice?" hissed the Master. "Isn't that what one says when one's conscience is bothering them? How is you conscience today, Doctor? Is it quiet enough to hear the dead screaming?"

"I didn't realise you had such a fondness for our home world."

The Master looked away, turning to look at the view once more. "To have savoured the final defeat of the Time Lords, to have watched as Gallifrey burned into ashes." He looked back at the Doctor. "Oh yes, Doctor, that would have pleased me once. But I would have destroyed them in revenge, not anger. A tool as powerful as Gallifrey should not have been disposed of lightly; it could have been used to bring about a new universal order." As the Master paused, the Doctor felt almost relieved: this was the man he remembered, and familiar territory was so precious to him now. "Oh, I would have seen them cowed, seen them suffer, before unleashing them into the universe. They would have been…undefeatable."

"Obviously not."

"Inadequate leadership."

"You'd have done things differently, I suppose?"

"And who were you to decide the fate of our species, Doctor? Who were you?"

The Doctor's eyes flashed with fresh anger, and he felt his hands clench into fists. It was an effort to stand still, to keep it all in focus, to remember where he was and who he was with, and, yes, that he had to be careful, even now. He spoke slowly. "I was the one who was there," he said. "I was the one given the choice between the millions of our race and the infinite billions of the universe. That was my choice." The Doctor stepped back suddenly. "That was my choice," he whispered, a hand reaching out to grip the stone wall of the balcony. "My choice." He blinked and his legs gave way beneath him, and felt himself slide to the floor. "I killed them. I watched them die. All of them. Burning bright enough to block out the suns."

"You took no pleasure in it." The Master loomed over him, his dark father confessor.

"Satisfaction." The Doctor closed his eyes. "I felt satisfaction. Because it was over. It was finally over. And they're dead. And I'm here. I'm here. And so are you. Why aren't you dead? Why aren't you dead?" His voice lashed out, harsh and accusing. "Why you?" His thoughts crashed over Romana, Susan, Azmael, Drax, even Borusa, gathering fierce momentum. "Why you? All those good people, all dead, why did a sick, twisted creature like you survive? What right have you to be alive?"

The Master accepted the words calmly, his expression unreadable. "Perhaps my…unique perspective on the universe means that I can survive, whatever the circumstances." He laced his fingers behind his back and turned away. "I was far enough away from the epicentre to see the time wave approaching. Your time wave. Oblivion was seconds away. So I took my TARDIS beyond the edge of the universe, right out of time and space, and then I watched you play god."

"As simple as that?"

"Simple?" snarled the Master. "You rewrote existence. You played with the forces of creation. Do not insult me by calling my survival simple. Seconds to calculate the escape route, but with an intellect such as mine…of course, escaping was one thing, returning quite another." He gave a ruthful smile. "Time is vindictive, and even in the TARDIS we were subject to her whims. It simply took a little longer for her to find us. But I defeated her. I knew I could, knew that the universe needed me."

"You telling me this little set-up is supposed to be altruistic?"

"It is my gift."

"Don't make me laugh."

"Everyone here is a survivor, Doctor. Everyone here owes their life to me. Their lives are mine, but they give their loyalty willingly. I saved them, Doctor." He paused. "From you. I'm sure that you will enjoy the irony. I, on the other hand, have enjoyed nothing for a very long time. Survival has occupied my every thought, driven my every action. And now I have saved you too."

"Yeah, right."

The Master raised his eyebrows, surprised. "You don't believe me?"

"I don't trust you."

"You did more than destroy the Time Lords, Doctor. You destroyed everything that they ever created."

"I know what I did. I know the consequences."

"Do you? Our people held absolute power over the cosmos for over ten million years, but even before that they wielded great powers. Powers that they were not afraid to use."

"Or abuse."

"Semantics. They were the first to discover the true secrets of time, the only to truly understand and control it. Oh, I know how refined the Daleks' control became towards the end, but though they may have been able to defeat the Time Lords, they would never leave the same mark upon the universe."

The Doctor frowned. "If you're talking about that junk Rassilon left behind…"

"No, Doctor! I am talking about the forces we unleashed when we first penetrated time. Those raw forces we once worshipped as gods that were kept in check by the designs we forced upon them. Raw, savage, sentient forces."

"You think I believe this? Any of this? Especially the bit about this somehow being for the good of others."

"I doubt you would ever steal files from the Time Lords. No matter how intriguing their reading."

"I didn't need to. I was Lord President of Gallifrey, if you recall."

The Master laughed easily, a rich, genuine sound. "Ah yes, an illustrious regime lasting at least, oh, several days."

"And I don't remember anything like that," said the Doctor, refusing to rise to the bait.

"You don't remember how to construct a demat gun either," said the Master.

"That's different."

"No," insisted the Master. "You had access to that knowledge when you were President, however briefly, but anything that dangerous even the High Council weren't foolish enough to let every doddering old fool who took the Presidency to retain it beyond the tenure of their office."

"But, of course, you managed to find it."

"Doctor, I spent months learning all the secrets of the Matrix, all that dark knowledge that the High Council would prefer to remain obscured in myth. And I know that there is a very fragile frontier protecting us right now: an eggshell, and should someone make an unfortunate misstep…"

"But I already have," said the Doctor quietly.

"Yes, that little incident with Miss Tyler's father was what convinced me to act."

"Why?" asked the Doctor with a shake of his head.

"I told you, Doctor. I need your help. Much as it pains me to admit this, I am only one man, and there is a limit to what I can do. But with your help, and the knowledge that I saved from the Matrix, we can take control of the time vortex. We can be the new universal power."

The Doctor flashed a grin. "For a moment, I really thought you might have changed."

"Well?"

"What's your hurry?" asked the Doctor. "If you're right, there's no-one else who could possibly obtain the sort of control you're talking about for millions of years, and if anyone does mess about too much there's nothing to stop the Vortex from reacting."

"All the safeguards put in place by the Time Lords have gone; even the smallest time experiment could be disastrous on a universal scale."

"How compassionate of you," interjected the Doctor.

"And I wasn't the only one who's attention you've caught. Come with me." The Master turned on his heel and strode inside. After debating a moment whether or not he was petty enough just to stay on the balcony because the Master clearly expected him to actually do as he was told, the Doctor followed him inside.

A circular table dominating the centre of the room now had a holographic display hovering over it. The Doctor recognised the image instantly, the spiral arms unmistakable: Earth's galaxy, and it had once been Gallifrey's galaxy, though at that magnification it looked identical to the galaxy that he remembered.

"Very pretty," he said, pretending not to notice the Master rolling his eyes.

The display changed, and focussed in on one of the spiral arms, then moved out to its limit, and showed a small cluster of stars surrounded by the ominous black of the intergalactic void. It moved across the arm until it reached the furthest star, a dull and dying red giant, with a small planetary system of two worlds, neither looked to be remotely inhabitable.

The Doctor looked through the display to see the Master watching him, his features eerily illuminated by the star systems circling over the table.

"Yeah, alright, it's a lifeless little world at the edge of the galaxy. So what?"

"I was not the only one to survive your carnage," said the Master, moving to stand next to the Doctor. "The inner world of that system is known by the inhabitants as Outpost Shada. It is the last colony of the Time Lords, and that is who I have saved you from.


	5. The Broken Bubble

**Sanctuary**

**The Broken Bubble **

The Doctor didn't even think. He whirled round and back-handed the Master across the face, sending him stumbling backwards. But it wasn't enough. The Doctor flew at the other Time Lord, wrapping his hands around the Master's throat and squeezed with grim determination, ready to throttle the life out of him.

But the Master was an experienced fighter. His initial surprise at such violence from the Doctor quickly turned to anger as he realised that his life could very well be in jeopardy. He sent a swift series of kicks and punches at the Doctor's body, his features twisted in rage, and managed to break the grip on his throat. With a final kick he knocked the Doctor to the floor and turned away. He felt his temper burning at the surface, and knew that he had to keep control. The Doctor had to stay alive. With an effort he stepped away, and again, he was in control, always in control. He took a deep breath as he regained his composure and calm.

"How I detest personal violence," he said, brushing some imaginary piece of dust from his suit.

The Doctor looked up at him. "You knew!" he spat. "You knew!"

"Of course I did," said the Master dismissively. "And if you ever strike me again I shall have Miss Tyler torn limb from limb whilst you watch. You understand?"

"You haven't changed."

"Which is more than I can say for you, my dear Doctor," said the Master, running a hand over his bruised throat, checking the extent of the damage.

You don't understand, thought the Doctor. But of course the Master did understand , better than anyone, and he had played with the Doctor's feelings perfectly. Assuming it wasn't for his own twisted amusement, the Doctor was desperate to know why.

"But there's nothing…they're silent," said the Doctor, clinging to the idea that this was a trick, that the Master was lying. It would be so easy to believe that. So very easy.

"Of course they are!" said the Master. "You tried to kill them, Doctor. They might forgive you many of your little foibles, but attempted genocide is not one of them." He took a careful step towards the Doctor, making sure to stay out of arm's reach. "They are terrified. They believe that you would hunt them down and destroy them, and after that little display, I can see why."

The Doctor shook his head and pulled himself up into a sitting position. "I would never…they left me…they left me." He cradled his head on his hands. "It was so quiet, so dark; death sitting inside my head. I was alone…"

"Naturally when I discovered it was you behind their extermination," continued the Master, placing a curious emphasis on the last word, "I cut you off too." He smiled. "Much as it pained me to do so." The Doctor looked up at him. "Oh, don't look so hurt: you were never one to suggest that the ends justified the means, and yet here we are. You've changed, Doctor. Caution is only to be expected."

"So they're trying to kill me?" His voice was almost pleading; he didn't want the truth, but the Master was not a liar.

"That's right."

"Because I killed them," he said, barely audible.

"Not exactly," admitted the Master. "They're rather more concerned that you're still dashing through time as though they're still there to clean up all your messes. When you're struggling against erasure from the cosmos, you don't really have time for that sort of thing."

"And how d'you know?"

"I have a spy," said the Master, matter-of-factly.

A bitter smile of realisation appeared on the Doctor's face, and he nodded. "So that's why you really need my help: you're racing against them, against what's left of the Time Lords, to re-establish control of the Vortex."

The Master gave a short laugh. "It's no race, I assure you. They have no concept of how to survive in a hostile universe without the protection of their vaunted powers." A finger stabbed at the holographic display. "They're struggling to keep their bio dome stable, to keep relative time out, until they can adjust. My experience, on the other hand, makes me something of an expert at survival."

"Oh really? Cause I'd have thought that the Celestial Intervention Agency might have had something to say about that." The Master scowled at the mention of one of Gallifrey's least ineffective organisations. "In fact, I'd have thought that their agents would be exactly the sort who might just have enough initiative and imagination to get out of the time-line, and then get back in. Am I right?"

"Feel free to go and ask them, Doctor. After that stunt in 1987, I believe that they have a particularly elaborate homecoming planned for you."

"The answer's still no."

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. Doctor, there is something that you need to know."

* * *

Rose reached out to touch the glass, cold and smooth and giving her no insight at all into the man trapped inside.

"This some sort of cryogenesis?" she asked.

"Nothing so simple. But think of it like that, if you like; the principle involved is the same. The subject is being preserved for a time when we will be able to cure him, to let him live."

Rose moved closer to the glass, misting it with her breath. She frowned as she examined the stranger's features, looking for something, anything, that might be familiar to her, but even his clothes were different, like some sort of Sherlock Holmes costume.

"It can't be him," she whispered to herself.

"It's not," said a voice in her ear. Rose jumped. Alison was standing right behind her, and was looking at the stranger's face. "This is what happens when they, when Time Lords, die, Rose. Their bodies change, renew themselves, regenerate into a new body. Then they get to keep on living, though they're never quite the same again. So I'm told."

He never mentioned that, thought Rose with a flash of anger. "So was this him?" asked Rose, and then remembered the sort of problems that time-travel tended to throw up. "Or will this be him?"

"Used to be him," Alison told her. "Him, like, now. Present. Today. Now he's just a possibility that the universe forgot about. A defunct time-line that's being artificially sustained."

"So what's he doing here? I mean, there's already a Doctor, isn't there? Can you have two of them?" She paused, trying to remember something about the rules of time-travel that the Doctor had tried to explain to her and what had happened in 1987. "Shouldn't he just have vanished?"

Alison gave her a weak smile, and Rose realised that she was on the edge of tears. She tried to imagine what she would feel like if it was her Doctor trapped in there, existing but not alive, and having no idea if she'd ever hear him again, ever feel his hand in hers, ever run in and out of danger and the adrenaline and exhilaration and the knowing that when she was with him she really was alive. She swallowed down the strange sensation of sickness and panic and glanced at Alison, and she knew that she was way past all of that. It was something else that was pushing her to go on now.

"The Master did this," Alison told her suddenly, as though admitting a lie.

Rose frowned, trying to understand. "To hurt you? To hurt the Doctor?"

"No, no, you…we…" She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. "Everyone that survived, everyone that made it to Sanctuary is a refugee. Our time-lines were destroyed. When the Master realised what was happening…you see, the Doctor…" She broke off again, and began pacing. "The Doctor was drunk. He had just enough sense to stay out of the way while the Master did…whatever it was that he did…the science is beyond me." She gave a ruthful smile. "Naturally, he made sure that he was safe first. Then the Doctor…even then, even in that state, he was still the Doctor, and I still had to be saved first. The Master was always…practical. The Doctor would have been of more use to him than me, but he still followed the Doctor's instructions. There wasn't time to adjust the Doctor properly. We were out of the universe , but time caught up with us, and all the Master could do was this." She waved a hand at the Doctor's capsule. "Freeze him in time, if you like, until he could figure out if there was a way to save him. Time, it seems, had something of a vendetta against the Time Lords, and the Doctor in particular." Alison reached out to touch the glass with the tips of her fingers. "And I think he wanted to die."

"Why?" asked Rose, barely audible.

Alison turned and looked her straight in the eyes. "Because he lost someone very close to him. I never knew her, but it broke him, I think."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, Rose."

Rose half-made to step forward, but the door slid open and the Doctor burst in, shattering the peaceful and solemn mood of the room. His face was white, his eyes wide, but his face lit up with a smile as soon as he saw her.

"Rose, you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's wrong?" But he wasn't looking at her anymore, wasn't even paying her the slightest bit of attention. He was staring over her shoulder, right at the other Doctor, Alison's Doctor. He whirled round to face the Master, who had quietly slipped into the room behind the Doctor. "What have you done?" he asked.

"How was I supposed to know you'd survive?" asked the Master defensively.

"Well, he obviously isn't surviving. What were you going to do then? Leave him, leave me, sitting in there for eternity? Pop down on a sleepless night to have a little midnight gloat, eh?" He frowned at the man in the capsule. "Not me at all," he muttered to himself.

"Doctor, is that really you?" asked Rose.

"Yeah, sort of." He stepped over to the console, and his fingers flew across the controls. Alison's eyes widened as she realised what he was doing.

"No!" she cried, rushing at him, but he pushed her aside easily. Rose caught her as she stumbled and shot a glare at the Doctor.

"You okay?" she asked. Alison looked up at her, her eyes frighteningly wide. She raised a finger, her hand shaking as she pointed.

"Look," she whispered, pointing at the Doctor's capsule.

It was empty. The Doctor was gone.

"You killed him," she sobbed. "You killed him."

The Doctor turned on her, and Rose expected him to be angry, but his face was weary and his eyes suddenly very, very old. "He was never alive," he said.

"Another death on you conscience, Doctor," said the Master, his voice expressionless. He seemed wholly unmoved by the fate of the other Doctor, much more interested in the Doctor that was now in front of him.

"That was an abomination."

"He was my friend," said Alison quietly, her eyes glistening. Rose wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

"It's all right," she whispered. "It's alright." Alison's soft sobs were barely audible, and Rose took the opportunity to shoot daggers at the Doctor over her shoulder, but said nothing. The Doctor returned her stare, expressionless, and Rose had the horrible feeling the she was being studied, like a sample in a Petri dish.

The Master clapped his hands slowly. "You see, Doctor? Just as I told you. The slightest threat; the slightest whim."

Alison stiffened slightly and let go of Rose. "You wanted this to happen?" she asked the Master.

He paused before answering and said, almost regretfully, "It was necessary."

"He was your…" She swallowed, her eyes flicking to the Doctor. "He was your friend too."

The Doctor clearly expected an outright denial from the Master, a scoffing remark, a mocking laugh, but none was forthcoming.

"Come, Alison. The Doctor and Miss Tyler have some things to discuss, including my offer of sanctuary, and you and I both have work to do."

And with that, he left the room. A moment later, Alison followed, her head bowed.


	6. The Way Back

**Sanctuary**

**The Way Back **

The Doctor and Rose stared at each other. Seconds, minutes, Rose wasn't sure. She could watch him, watch those eyes forever. It was calm here, in this room, and that gave her patience, but she was still angry, and still afraid to ask him why.

The Doctor looked away first, and Rose knew she was being petty for feeling that that was some kind of victory, however small.

"He was never going to be brought back," said the Doctor finally.

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do. And so did the Master."

Rose shook her head, disbelieving. "But Alison…" she tailed off, knowing that she couldn't really argue the point: she knew nothing about the science, and only what Alison had told her about the situation. There was only so much she could disagree with based on gut feeling, and she knew that she didn't like this at all.

"I think it was for her benefit," he told her. "Or until he was useful. To make a point. Like now."

"What do you mean?" asked Rose slowly, not entirely sure that she wanted to know.

She saw the Doctor's jaw tighten before he spoke. "You have any idea how dangerous that was, having two of us in the same place and time?"

"But there were two of me, back in the church." She didn't bother to elaborate. They both remembered very well what had happened there.

"You're just human. Now me, being a Time Lord, things are different. If I believe the Master, and yeah, I suppose I do, then any temporal disturbance can be fatal."

"So you just ran down here and killed yourself. Just like that. No second thoughts? No thinking that he might be worth saving? And Alison…damn it, Doctor! Didn't you even think about it?"

"I thought about you! What if the raptors had turned up? What was I supposed to do then?"

"But they didn't! We've been here for hours, and nothing has happened."

"The Master's put together some very temporary and very thin temporal shielding; there was no way to tell how long it would last for. Every second was a risk." He caught her look. "He wasn't alive, Rose, I promise. There was nothing that could have been done."

"You didn't even try. You just erased him, like he was nothing. Like he didn't matter."

"Rose, you were in danger."

She gave a short laugh. "Doctor, you said it yourself: travelling with you is always dangerous. I'm used to it alright? I can handle it."

"Not like this," he said. "Megalomaniacs, Autons, Gelth, that's all old hat. Could do it in my sleep. But these problems with time…I never had to worry about them before, not really."

"And what about Alison?"

"I was thinking about you." He sat down by the console and refused to meet her eyes. "You remember when I took you to see your dad?"

"Course," she said quietly.

"Didn't think about that at all. You wanted to go, so we went. Even when you decided to muck things up, I would never have left you."

"I know."

"And when the Earth was being wiped out, when billions were dying and there was no way out, not for any of us, all I needed was to know that you were sorry. That was it. Everything all right again."

"Doctor…"

"And when all I had to do to save the world was blow up one stupid little over-decorated house, I hesitated. Because better the whole world go up in flames than I…I thought it was the war." He closed his eyes. "I thought that I'd made the right decision there, that I'd save everyone by sacrificing a few. Lesser of two evils and all that bloody nonsense. Swore I'd never do it again, never accept that I'd let the ends justify the means, not when it wasn't the right thing to do." He looked at her, eyes pleading. "So I couldn't let anything happen to you, couldn't let you be hurt. Not ever. Everything would be alright, if you were okay." He paused. "That seem right to you?"

"I…I don't know," she said, but the Doctor wasn't listening.

"Then I thought about you apes and your families, how you would do the most stupid things to protect your kids, protect the people you…care about. It was me, I thought, spending to much time on that planet of yours. Picking up bad habits."

"Thanks a lot."

"Except it's not me, Rose." He fixed her with a piercing stare, and she felt as though he were looking into her mind. "It's you."

She blinked. "Right, now you've lost me. And you're starting to scare me just a little."

"Yeah, I'm not having such a good day either." He held up a hand before she spoke. "And , no, I really don't want to talk about it, thanks very much. I need to tell you something, cause you've got a right to know, and I'm not sure what I supposed to do." He flashed her a smile. "Maybe you can help."

"Okay, now I'm properly worried. Just spit it out, okay?"

"Remember when we met?"

"Bit hard to forget."

"Alright, alright. But you know I left the first time I asked you to come with me you said no."

"Yeah," said Rose, with almost a smile. Strange how close she had come to going right on with her normal, straightforward, safe and oh so normal life.

"I was gone for eighteen seconds."

"About that," said Rose. She guessed where this was going: "But how long were you really gone for?"

"Couple of hours. Didn't do too much: cup of tea, tinkering with the scanner alignment, read some Dickens. But I couldn't concentrate. Felt like I was just passing the time, waiting for something to happen. Nothing had really changed though, except that I'd met you.

* * *

"You can't expect me to work, not after that," said Alison. The Master took a seat behind the desk, but Alison didn't bother to sit down, instead she stood behind the other chair, hands gripping the back of it tightly to keep her steady.

"Alison, don't be foolish. He was in stasis for over a decade. Did you really think that I could bring him back? If I could do that, I would have done so long before now."

"I don't know what to think," she said icily. "That was the Doctor." Her fingers tightened around the chair. "You let him kill the Doctor."

"He is the Doctor."

"Not my Doctor."

The Master sighed. "Even after all this time, you still insist in thinking in three dimensional terms. Have you learned nothing?"

"Anything that I've learned since leaving Earth, I learned from the Doctor."

"That is beside the point. Having the two of them here together for too long would have created a temporal incident."

"Too long?" exclaimed Alison. "Exactly how long is too long? You risked the destruction of the colony for this? To satisfy some whim of your curiosity?"

"It is not a whim!" the Master snapped, bringing his fist down on the desk. The outburst of anger was quickly suppressed. "The Doctor could be a valuable ally," he said mildly.

"But this one is different. How could he be convinced to help?"

"He may have no choice."

Alison shook her head. "No. No, you won't put Rose in danger."

"You like the human?"

"Yes," admitted Alison shortly. She could have added a dozen things, but she didn't want to elaborate. She doubted that the Master would, or even could, understand.

"That is unfortunate."

"You are not going to harm her!"

"Calm down, Miss Cheney. Rose is perfectly safe from me."

Alison frowned, thinking. "Not the Doctor…?"

The Master shrugged noncommittally. "As you say, the Doctor does not know me and I do not know him. And he has changed a great deal."

"What's wrong with her?" asked Alison.

"It seems that the Time Lords of Outpost Shada are far more competent that I would have ever given them credit for."

* * *

"I don't understand," said Rose, convinced that were it not for the strange atmosphere in this room she would be crying, or panicking. "Until I met you nothing weird happened in my life. Nothing."

"They didn't need to be anywhere near you to change you. Or me."

* * *

"Of course, the Time Lords already had the Doctor's bio data in the APC Net. Clearly they managed to extract it before Gallifrey was destroyed. Miss Tyler was a temporal trap, set specifically to the Doctor and attuned to his bio data. Once he found her, he would be unable to extricate himself from her timeline. He would become dependant upon her."

"But why?" asked Alison. She knew a little of the steps that the Time Lords were willing to go to in desperate circumstances, but as far as she was aware all they wanted to do with regards to the Doctor was kill him. But a half-hearted attempt to eliminate his timeline notwithstanding, the Time Lords had quickly discovered more pressing concerns in their new home.

The Master looked at her in a way that would have once made her jumpy enough to make whatever excuses she needed to to leave the room. She had never been truly frightened of him, though she suspected that if she had known him before her Doctor had saved his life, she would have been in danger of her life if she even disagreed with him. The Doctor never liked to discuss his history, but she had pressed him, and telling her about the Master was easier than talking about what he had lost.

She had seen the Master kill, to protect himself and her and the Doctor. And when he had made Sanctuary the first laws had been nothing short of draconian as they integrated different races from different times and different cultures into one little colony. It wasn't until many years later that she suspected the only reason she had survived those first few months was because she had proven to be good with people, all people. She'd never imagined her extensive bar work and all the strange conversations and violent situations she had had to diffuse would ever help keep her alive, or provide the foundation for building a new world.

And she wasn't afraid of him now. Yes, he controlled the technology, understood the science and knew the obstacles that they faced and how to overcome them, but she was the public face of the administration here. She was the one who told the people what they had to do and why. She was the one they came to with problems, questions and complaints; the one who solved the everyday problems. She was the one they trusted, and the Master knew that.

It was a disappointed look that he gave her, she decided. "The science is beyond me," she said. "You know that."

"Alison, sometimes I despair at you. This is not about science, it's about control: the remaining Time Lords believe the Doctor to be the single greatest threat to their continued existence. While they might lack the resources and resolve to track him down and kill him, setting a trap was not out of the question. And with his fondness for Earth and its inhabitants, he wouldn't notice until it was too late, or until somebody told him."

"So you told him this?"

"I cannot risk the Time Lords using Miss Tyler as leverage to control the Doctor. If he would put a planet in danger on a whim of hers, can you imagine what he would do if her life were in danger?

"But the Time Lords want him dead, don't they?"

"But they have so few resources to call upon now. And how much more useful the Doctor would be as an agent."

"And you're not going to take advantage of this?" she asked suspiciously.

The Master drummed his fingers on the table. "If the Doctor does not choose to stay, then I will let him go," he said curtly.

"Thank you."

He met her eyes. "But I will not allow the Time Lords to use him."

* * *

Rose wasn't angry. She should be, but she wasn't. Instead she felt cold and shivery and very, very fragile.

"So what happens now, Doctor?" she asked.

"You scared?"

"Yeah," she admitted.

"Come here." He opened his arms, and she stepped into a hug. Warm and reassuring and perfect. This was where she belonged and this was where she wanted to be, and now she wasn't sure if that was her at all. If the TARDIS had got inside her mind to translate alien languages, how could she guess what the Time Lords had done to her?

She pulled away slightly and looked up at him. "So is it back to Earth then? My Earth, I mean."

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, you won't want…I mean you can't have me been hanging around, not if…" He put a finger to her lips.

"Whatever they did, it wasn't your fault. You're Rose Tyler, Rose Tyler, and you're not going anywhere you don't want to go."

"You're not angry?"

"Furious. At the Time Lords, not you."

"So we're still…you're not going to throw me out?"

"Nope." He grinned at her, and everything made sense again. "Now how about a trip to the 27th century Jupiter? They have pizza. And I could murder a decent cup of tea."

"Just like that," said Rose.

"Just like that. We'll just have to be a little more careful about having any temporal accidents, keep an eye out for humanoids in silly looking hats and we'll be fine."

"Fantastic!" she said, and flung herself into his chest, attempting to smother him in a hug.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose found the TARDIS in the Parliament building's gardens, sitting in the shade of a small grove of trees. The Master and Alison were standing nearby. Clearly, they were expected.

They approached, hand in hand, fingers interlinked. Rose felt like skipping, but she didn't think the Doctor would appreciate that, not right now.

The Master stepped forward. "I take it you have decided not to stay."

"It just so happens I'd rather go see the universe than sit around all day empire-building."

"That's not fair," said Alison. She was leaning against a tree trunk, watching the Doctor through narrowed eyes.

"Suppose not," admitted the Doctor. "Not this time, anyway."

"And what about the Time Lords?" asked the Master.

"Don't you worry about me, I can take care of myself. Though I suppose I should thank you for the heads up." For allowing me to let go of some of the guilt too, thought the Doctor.

"We off?" asked Rose.

"Looks like it," said the Doctor, taking out his TARDIS key.

Rose looked across at Alison. "Goodbye then." She wanted to say more, but it was Alison who stepped forward to hug her.

"Thank you, Rose," she whispered in her hear.

"For what?" Rose whispered back.

"Bringing me a bit of home." She pulled away and clasped Rose's hands in her own. "If you ever want to come back…"

"I might drop in," Rose said.

"Oh, wonderful," muttered the Doctor, stepping inside his ship. Rose followed him in and the door closed.

For a split second there was the silence, and then the grove was filled with the unnatural sound of the TARDIS's dematerialisation.

The Master and Alison exchanged a glance.

"Will you be able to extend the temporal shielding with the available power?" she asked. "I could shutdown the northern plateau's transmat system."

"Unnecessary. We merely have to prevent detection, any incidents he wants to create are his own affair."

"He won't thank you for this."

The Master laughed. "And that's what makes it all worthwhile."

* * *

Once the Doctor had dematerialised, he turned his attention to the state of the console room. Blankets and pillows were still strewn across the floor and there was a dirty teacup sitting by the inner door.

"You having some sort of sleepover party whilst I was out of it?" he asked.

"Don't worry, I'll tidy up." She peered over his shoulder and tried to make sense of the co-ordinates. "So where we heading to? Jupiter? Isn't it a bit gaseous to land on?"

"That's why we're heading to one of the moons. Problem is I can't remember which one has all the tourist spots. Hang on." He activated the scanner screen and punched up the Jupiter Tourist Board's information catalogue. "Bit early, maybe," he murmured.

There was a crunching noise from inside the console, and the ship suddenly seemed to turn over ninety degrees. Rose gave a shout as she fell down towards the outer door, landing on top of the Doctor as the ship righted itself.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed the Doctor, rushing to check the console. "Our co-ordinates have changed." His fingers flew across the controls. "Pre-programmed flight, there's nothing I can do." He slammed his fist against the console. "The Master. Damn it, how could I be so stupid?"

"So where are we going?" asked Rose.

The Doctor took another look at the console. "Earth, early twenty-first century." He frowned. "2006, and London. Great."

"We're going home?"

The Doctor shot her a look. "Your home. And we're not staying. Soon as we land, we're off again."

The next few minutes passed in silence as the Doctor prowled anxiously around the console. Rose took the blankets and pillows back to their proper rooms and got herself a fresh cup of tea for herself when the Doctor said that he didn't want one.

"Right, hang on," said the Doctor, his attention fixed on the console. "He probably put us down somewhere very nasty."

"Hanging on," said Rose, sipping at her tea.

The TARDIS materialised and the Doctor immediately input new co-ordinates and hit the control to dematerialise.

Nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" asked Rose.

"That's what I'm trying to find out," said the Doctor. He rechecked the co-ordinates and, seeing nothing wrong, investigated the inside of the console. "No, no," he murmured as he checked off components. "No, no, NO!" He sat up suddenly, hitting his head against the underside of the console, causing Rose to wince.

"No?" she asked.

The Doctor stood up, his eyes blazing. "The dematerialisation circuit has gone."

"Then how did we dematerialise?" asked Rose.

"Temporary circuit? Attaching a transmat responder to the circuit? I don't know. But it's gone. Which means we're not going anywhere."

"You haven't got a spare?"

"Nope."

"Build a new one?"

"I tried that once. Three years later and no progress. Luckily I got given a new one." He blinked. "He's left me here."

The Doctor took a final glance at the controls and then rushed outside. "Doctor, wait!" called Rose, as there was a noise from the central column: the light seemed to blink and something appeared on the console, an envelope. She picked it up and followed the Doctor outside.

"Your bloody estate too. Fantastic. Stuck on Earth and within spitting distance of your mother."

Rose pretended she didn't hear that and passed him the envelope. "It appeared on the console."

He read the front of the envelope: The Doctor. With gritted teeth, he ripped it open, making an effort not to tear it to pieces straight away.

My most sincere apologies for the inconvenience. If you ever reconsider my offer, please leave a message at the following number ---------

The Doctor read the note twice and then stuffed it into his jacket pocket.

"What now?" asked Rose.

"Now?" the Doctor sighed. "Now we get a cup of tea and some lunch."

"And if you need a place to stay…"

"I am not staying at your mother's. No, no, I'm sure UNIT didn't throw away all those components I left behind, there must be something I can do, and there's plenty of pieces of equipment I can work with in the TARDIS, " he mused. He turned to Rose and grinned, holding out his hand. "Come on, Rose, we've got work to do."

* * *

End.


End file.
